32 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



an unusually late one, and though I searched carefully for the nests of this 

 species during' both April and May, I failed to find a single one before May 

 29. This contained ten fresh eggs. During June I found a number, how- 

 ever, also two in July, and one as late as August 17. I believe two broods 

 are regularly raised in a season. Incubation, as near as I was able to learn, 

 lasts from twenty-one to twenty-four days, and does not begin until all the 

 eggs are laid, and these are deposited daily. 



The nest of Gambel's Partridge is simply a slight oval-shaped hollow, 

 scratched out in the sandy soil of the bottom lands, usually alongside of a 

 bunch of " sacaton," a species of tall rye grass, the dry stems and blades of 

 last year's growth hanging down on all sides of the new growth and hiding the 

 nest well from view. Others are placed under, or in a pile of, brush or drift 

 brought down from the mountains by freshets and lodged against some old 

 stump, the roots of trees, or other obstructions on some of the numerous islands 

 in the now dry creek beds, refreshing green spots amid a dreary waste of sand. 

 (It is perhaps as well to mention that many of the so-called creeks in Arizona 

 are dry for about ten months of the year, the water sinking below the sand for 

 a foot or or two, but running below this through the coarser gravel, digging 

 being necessary in order to reach it.) These so-called islands an* always cov- 

 ered with a luxurious vegetation, and it is in this that most of the Partridges 

 nest. According to my observations only a comparatively small number resort 

 to the cactus and yucca covered foothills and mesas some distance back, where 

 the nests are usually placed under the spreading leaves of one of the latter- 

 named plants. If grain fields are near by they nest sometimes amidst the 

 growing grain in these, and should the latter be surrounded by brush fences, 

 these also furnish favorite nesting sites. 



Among the nests observed by me two were placed in situations above 

 ground. One of these was found June 2 on top of a good-sized rotten willow 

 stump, about 2 feet from the ground, in a slight decayed depression in its 

 center, which had, perhaps, been enlarged by the bird. The eggs were laid on 

 a few dry cotton wood leaves, and were partly covered by these. Another pair 

 appropriated an old Road-runner's nest, Geococcyx californianus, in a mesquite 

 tree, about 5 feet from the ground, to which apparently a little additional lining 

 had been added by the bird. The nest contained ten fresh eggs when found on 

 June 27, 1872. 



Mr. Herbert Brown found a pair of these birds occupying a newly-made 

 nest of a Palmer's Thrasher, Harporhynchits curvirostris palmeri, in which seven 

 eggs had been deposited. This nest was placed in and near the top of a cholla 

 cactus about 4 feet from the ground. He says: "My first impression was 

 that an Indian had probably placed them there, but I was soon convinced to 

 the contrary, as I found it impossible to get my head near the nest without first 

 breaking down a part of the cholla with the barrels of my gun. The eggs were 

 fresh and finely marked." 1 



1 Forest and Stream, Jane 4, 1885. 



